Why it’s the right moment to celebrate imperfections
Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar in a still from Dum Laga Ke Haisha
The trailer of Dum Laga Ke Haisha has garnered a legion of fans, leading one to realise that it’s time Bollywood and everybody else accepts the fact that “love comes in all shapes”. Newcomer Bhumi Pednekar stars alongside Ayushmann Khurrana. Her role demands her to look anything but size zero. A couple of years ago, actresses would have done anything, but take on such a role.
From Deepika Padukone in Om Shanti Om to Anushka Sharma in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, actresses have always had debut roles where they have looked drop-dead gorgeous. But it seems that a much-needed paradigm shift is at work.Internationally too, more and more women are promoting healthy and realistic sizes rather than the stereotypical size and shape of a super model. An untouched image of supermodel Cindy Crawford in lingerie recently went viral. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the photograph highlights the 48-year-old’s body that’s far more slender and taut like her early modelling years.
On the other hand, Beyoncé’s untouched photos from an ad campaign, which shows her skin with pimples, wrinkles, acne, visible pores in other words, like an ordinary human being have found supporters from the social media as they celebrated “real beauty” and commented that “her visible flaws only add to her real beauty”. Closer home, the effort to celebrate real beauty has found numerous takers. “Personally if you ask me, it doesn’t matter how someone looks... what matters is how you feel in their company. My better half needs to be a woman of substance, someone whom I could be very attached to and trust implicitly,” says Rohit Khandelwal, TV actor and model from Hyderabad, now based in Mumbai.
“In showbiz too, one might be asked to shed a few kilos for a film or even put on weight for a role. But what one ultimately sees on big screen is the performance you give, that’s all that matters,” he says. Film director Nag Ashwin explains how films like Dum Laga Ke Haisha will be good for society. “Back in the old days, there was more of a mind-to-mind connection between the boy and girl. Today, we are over-saturated with advertisements that tell us we’ve to look perfect or be a certain way... These days, even look at the cartoons, they have size-zero characters, which kids are growing up watching. In films, there will always be some fat friend of a beautiful heroine... These portrayals do influence how girls think about themselves. So I think our generation has to take that extra step to overcome this image, these issues and be ourselves,” he says.
Cinematographer Aditya Jella agrees and states that focus needs to be on a woman’s personality and not how she looks. “Every advertisement today tells you that you are not good enough... You are not smelling right, you are not looking fair, you are fat... I am not just talking about girls, but boys as well. Shah Rukh Khan is selling fairness creams. These creams are a big deal for girls in India. If they are dark, they have low confidence or they are made to feel that way. It’s an open secret that photos of all the actors and actresses on the covers of the magazines are photoshopped. It’s rare that some actor is too perfect for any image editing. For me, the main thing is the personality of a girl or a person in general. Beauty can come and go,” he says.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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